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NATHAN HOWARD / GETTY IMAGES

Good morning, Portland! Are you ready for some slight relief from the heat after yesterday's scorcher? If not, don't worry—we've still go an entire summer wildfire season ahead of us.

Here are the headlines.

• Well, well, well, what do we have here? Former Rep. Mike Nearman—who recently became the first-ever member of the Oregon House to be expelled for endangering his colleagues—is now trying to weasel his way back in, by putting his name forward for a possible appointment to his old seat. House Democrats are now tasked with passing special legislation to ensure that doesn't happen.

• Here's some more context on why Oregon didn't make our Monday deadline for the 70 percent vaccination goal—and why we might not even make it by the end of the month:

• Eight Oregon breweries, including Portland’s Von Ebert and Little Beast, have each created beers called The Oregon I Am in support of the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts (COLT). COLT is the statewide association consisting of thirty nonprofit land trusts, organizations that take authority over—or in some cases ownership of—a property at the behest of the private owner. The main gist is that these are the areas where we hike, kayak, or quietly marvel at Mother Nature and, in an attempt to further conserve and preserve them, you can drink beer to help.

• In the United States Congress, things are as functional as ever, with Republican Senators—the minority party—set to block sweeping voting rights legislation through a filibuster. You kind of have to admire the duality of it being anti-democratic both in form and in result.

• The New York City mayoral primary is today! Why should you, as a Portlander, care? Well, for one thing, NYC is trying out ranked-choice voting for the first time today, and we have a chance to see how that model works. If you plan to follow the results as they come in later today, here's a look at the different candidates.

• If you care about free speech and police accountability (which you probably do, as a Mercury reader), be sure to check out this cool panel discussion, which includes our own news editor Alex Zielinski!

• In case you missed it, here's a stellar guest opinion piece we ran yesterday about how cops are not the working class: "[The] intersection between Black Lives Matter activism and labor poses an interesting question: Where do police unions fit into an increasingly pro-union America? The answer is… they don’t."

• Las Vegas Raiders player Carl Nassib came out as gay yesterday, making him the first openly gay NFL player ever. "What's up people?" Nassib said in a video posted to Instagram. "I just want to take a quick moment to say that I'm gay." Same, Carl! Nassib is also donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project.

• And finally, just look at this cat!